My Services for Sellers

The decision to put your house on the market may not always be easy. Many people are forced to sell because of a changing job or family situation, a wish to upgrade or downsize, or because they feel the current market presents the best opportunity to make a profit. As the seller, you incur the full cost of the services of two licensed real estate agents: you pay 3% of the total sale price of your home to your exclusive listing agent and 3% to the buyer’s agent. The buyer of your home pays nothing.

Because of the cost, hiring the services of a real estate broker may not be feasible for everyone. For those who cannot spare the 6%, listing their homes as For Sale By Owner might be a more affordable option. Others, however, may hire the services of a listing agent to avoid the hassle, inconvenience, and uncertainty of selling their homes themselves. During the home-selling process, owners will need to be prepared to answer phone calls from potential buyers and agents, schedule times to show the house, deal with walk-ins, arrange to open their homes to inspectors, hire a contractor to make repairs, if necessary, and coordinate documents for closing.

As a licensed real estate broker, I provide comprehensive listing services to sellers who wish to avoid coordinating the sale of their homes themselves. Below is an outline of the services I typically provide to sellers as their listing agent:

Pricing Your Home. I use the many tools available to real estate agents to determine the right asking price for your home. Setting the right price is much less of a guessing game than you might think. Many concrete factors go into pricing the housing market and determining what sells quickly and what sits. The first step to settling on a price is conducting a Comparative Market Analysis.

The Comparative Market Analysis. Should you approach me about listing your home, I will arrange to view your property and then prepare a free-of-charge, free-of-obligation Comparative Market Analysis for you, a document that compares your home to others in your area, analyzes recent sales data, and recommends an asking price for your home. The following factors help determine my recommended asking price: your home’s current assessed value, the square footage of your home and property, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, recent updates or other attributes, and the sales prices of homes that have recently sold in your area.

The Listing Agreement. If you wish to select me to list your home, we would together sign a listing agreement, which guarantees that, as your exclusive listing agent, I would work with your best interests in mind to market your home.

Promotion. As your listing agent, I work quickly to expose your home to as many potential buyers as possible. As soon as the listing agreement is signed, I take pictures of your property and post the listing with the Multiple Listing Service. Your listing will be made instantly available to all real estate agents within our MLS. I will also feature your home, complete with a virtual tour, on my website here and on Realtor.com.

The Open House. Open houses can be very effective at pulling potential buyers in to view your property. On Sunday afternoons when it’s convenient for you to vacate your home, I will host open houses to show and promote your property and to answer questions for potential buyers. I will collect names and contact information from visitors and follow up with interested parties for feedback.

Agent Feedback. Area brokers who preview your home can provide valuable feedback on the asking price and how well your home is showing to potential clients. I will call agents to solicit their input and pass along their comments and suggestions to you. We may wish to lower the price or make a modification to the home or property to increase the chance of a sale.

Offers. Sometimes within hours, I will receive single or competing offers from buyers interested in purchasing your house. Offers come in written form directly to me from buyers’ agents. Within minutes of receiving an offer, I will call you to present it and to discuss your options. You may reject the offer, accept the offer, or have me present a written counteroffer, which I will draw up with you. Should you receive multiple offers, you may wish to counteroffer to each, a gambit which, if executed carefully so as not to lose all buyers, can result in receiving bids above your asking price.

The Contract. Once you receive an offer with the right combination of price and contingencies, you will ratify the contract and prepare for final inspections and closing. I will work with you and the buyer’s agent to coordinate a suitable time to conduct the home inspections. As the seller, you are also required to hire a termite inspector to evaluate your house.

Repairs. Should issues arise from any or all inspections, the buyer will make a request in writing of the items they wish you, as the seller, to have repaired by a licensed contractor per the terms agreed to in the contract.

Closing. As the seller, you are not required to attend the closing. After the closing is complete, you will receive your payout from the sale from the real estate closing agent. You will receive either a check for the total sale price minus the 6% real estate commission, which is split evenly between the listing and buyer’s agents, or a check for just the profit from the sale of your house, which is the total sale price minus the real estate commission and your final mortgage pay-off amount.